Ignorance is a bliss. But You keep on laughing

Israeli Exhibition Honors Albanian Muslims Who Saved Jews During WWII
JERUSALEM: Tears welling in his eyes, an elderly Holocaust survivor on Thursday embraced the son of the Albanian man who saved him from the Nazi death camps, highlighting an event recognizing the little-known role played by European Muslims in helping Jews during World War II.

Albanians sheltered between 600 and 1,800 Jewish refugees, risking death or imprisonment, officials said. At the end of the war, Albania was the only European country with a larger Jewish population than before the war.

http://iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/0...st-Muslims.php



Holocaust Remembrance Week Activities 2008
Norman Gershman, photographer of the Besa exhibit, speaks at the opening of an exhibit in observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
Location: United Nations, New York
Date: 29 January 2008



On Tuesday, January 29th at 6:00pm, co-sponsors Yad Vashem and the Permanent Mission of Albania to the United Nations, presented
“BESA: A Code of Honor, Muslim Albanians who Rescued Jews during the Holocaust”. For more information about this historic event, please click here for the UN web site or here for the Yad Vashem web site.


http://www.eyecontactfoundation.org/

In 1934, Herman Bernstein, the United States Ambassador to Albania, wrote:

“There is no trace of any discrimination against Jews in Albania, because Albania happens to be one of the rare lands in Europe today where religious prejudice and hate do not exist, even though Albanians themselves are divided into three faiths.”

Albania, a small and mountainous country on the southeast coast of the Balkan peninsula, was home to a population of 803,000. Of those only two hundred were Jews. After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, many Jews found refuge in Albania. No accurate figures exist regarding their number; however, different sources estimate that 600-1,800 Jewish refugees entered that country from Germany, Austria, Serbia, Greece and Yugoslavia, in the hope to continue on to the Land of Israel or other places of refuge.

Following the German occupation in 1943, the Albanian population, in an extraordinary act, refused to comply with the occupier’s orders to turn over lists of Jews residing within the country’s borders. Moreover, the various governmental agencies provided many Jewish families with fake documentation that allowed them to intermingle amongst the rest of the population. The Albanians not only protected their Jewish citizens, but also provided sanctuary to Jewish refugees who had arrived in Albania, when it was still under Italian rule, and now found themselves faced with the danger of deportation to concentration camps.

The remarkable assistance afforded to the Jews was grounded in Besa, a code of honor, which still today serves as the highest ethical code in the country. Besa, means literally “to keep the promise.” One who acts according to Besa is someone who keeps his word, someone to whom one can trust one’s life and the lives of one’s family. Apparently this code sprouted from the Muslim faith as interpreted by the Albanians.

The help afforded to Jews and non-Jews alike should be understood as a matter of national honor. The Albanians went out of their way to provide assistance; moreover, they competed with each other for the privilege of saving Jews. These acts originated from compassion, loving-kindness and a desire to help those in need, even those of another faith or origin.

Albania, the only European country with a Muslim majority, succeeded in the place where other European nations failed. Almost all Jews living within Albanian borders during the German occupation, those of Albanian origin and refugees alike, were saved, except members of a single family. Impressively, there were more Jews in Albania at the end of the war than beforehand.

For more information about Righteous Among the Nations

http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/..._Gershman.html

Human Losses of World War Two by Country
Country 1).Population 1939 2).Military deaths 3).Civilian deaths 4).Jewish Holocaust deaths 5).Total deaths 6).Deaths as % of 1939 population
Albania[1] 1).1,073,000 2).28,000 3).0 4).200 5).28,200 6).2.63%


200 jews lived in albania in 1939.And 200 were killed in holocaust.Interesting?

Do you have a link to your source?


Thank you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

You can see that Albanians did not have any civilian deaths .Witch means that no Albanian was caught hiding Jews. Because if they were caught by Germans or Italians they would be send to c.camps or shot.

First off, wikipedia is not a credible source as anyone with a net connection can edit the information, in anyway anyone pleases.

Second, the numbers you presented, it was only mention how many jews were killed, not how many that lived there.


Moreover,WHY WOULD Israeli for one have an exhibition that honors Albanian Muslims who saved Jews during WW2???

READ>>>> Albania, a small and mountainous country on the southeast coast of the Balkan peninsula, was home to a population of 803,000. Of those only two hundred were Jews. After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, many Jews found refuge in Albania. No accurate figures exist regarding their number; however, different sources estimate that 600-1,800 Jewish refugees entered that country from Germany, Austria, Serbia, Greece and Yugoslavia, in the hope to continue on to the Land of Israel or other places of refuge.


Following the German occupation in 1943, the Albanian population, in an extraordinary act, refused to comply with the occupier’s orders to turn over lists of Jews residing within the country’s borders. Moreover, the various governmental agencies provided many Jewish families with fake documentation that allowed them to intermingle amongst the rest of the population. The Albanians not only protected their Jewish citizens, but also provided sanctuary to Jewish refugees who had arrived in Albania, when it was still under Italian rule, and now found themselves faced with the danger of deportation to concentration camps.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/..._Gershman.html


You see, they risked their own lives, even though they knew they would face death if someone found out that they were hiding Jews.

Oh no! It's someone of slightly different south-eastern european descent, kill him! All while there are people civilized enough to befriend people of other skin colors. A crime against humanity and civilization plain and simple. Ethnic clensing is always wrong, there is no discussion. Hate brings blood, blood brings blood.

__________________
"I pity those that take authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority."

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws." – Ayn Rand

If you didn’t know Albania was on the axis side. Albania was puppet state of Italy.
They hade ss division "skenderbeg".
I don’t understand how can you deny it? You were on AXIS side!!!

You are wright about Wikipedia. But i don’t know why would anybody lie about the number of dead jews.It is probably jews information because they were tracking the deaths of jews after the ww2.

heh heh pretty funy tho but ur problem marko is not bringing links that means propaganda! PLS FOLLOW:
citing yad vashem ( a jewish website)
http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/..._Gershman.html


Albania, a small and mountainous country on the southeast coast of the Balkan peninsula, was home to a population of 803,000. Of those only two hundred were Jews. After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, many Jews found refuge in Albania. No accurate figures exist regarding their number; however, different sources estimate that 600-1,800 Jewish refugees entered that country from Germany, Austria, Serbia, Greece and Yugoslavia, in the hope to continue on to the Land of Israel or other places of refuge.
Following the German occupation in 1943, the Albanian population, in an extraordinary act, refused to comply with the occupier’s ordered to turn over lists of Jews residing within the country’s borders.
Moreover, the various governmental agencies provided many Jewish families with fake documentation that allowed them to intermingle amongst the rest of the population. The Albanians not only protected their Jewish citizens, but also provided sanctuary to Jewish refugees who had arrived in Albania, when it was still under Italian rule, and now found themselves faced with the danger of deportation to concentration camps.
One who acts according to Besa is someone who keeps his word, someone to whom one can trust one’s life and the lives of one’s family. Apparently this code sprouted from the Muslim faith as interpreted by the Albanians.

The help afforded to Jews and non-Jews alike should be understood as a matter of national honor. The Albanians went out of their way to provide assistance; moreover, they competed with each other for the privilege of saving Jews. These acts originated from compassion, loving-kindness and a desire to help those in need, even those of another faith or origin.
Albania, the only European country with a Muslim majority, succeeded in the place where other European nations failed. Almost all Jews living within Albanian borders during the German occupation, those of Albanian origin and refugees alike, were saved, except members of a single family. Impressively, there were more Jews in Albania at the end of the war than beforehand.
AN ALBANIAN STORY:
Our parents were devout Muslims and believed, as we do, that ‘every knock on the door is a blessing from God.’ We never took any money from our Jewish guests. All persons are from God. Besa exists in every Albanian soul.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/..._Gershman.html



AND THATS Y IM PROUD TO BE AN ALBANIAN!

Albanian Family Honored for Helping Jews
By MARCUS FRANKLIN
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 18, 2007; 2:16 PM

NEW YORK -- World War II was over, and Anna Kohen, then a small child, was walking with her mother in Vlora, Albania, when a Muslim woman ran toward them, crying and calling her mother by an unfamiliar name.

The women hugged and cried. Later, her mother explained that the woman was from a village where she, Kohen's father and other Jews had hidden during the Nazi occupation before Kohen was born. To protect themselves, Kohen's mother and father had taken Muslim names.
Kohen recalled Wednesday as the Anti-Defamation League praised Albania as the only occupied country where no Jews died at the hands of the Nazis, thanks to the country's Christians and Muslims.
Although records from that period are incomplete, Michael Salberg, the league's director of international affairs, estimated that several thousand Jews fled to Albania from surrounding countries in Eastern Europe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...011800969.html